The North Shore Sun is staffed with seasoned journalists who know how to make a quality newspaper.

Associate editor Grant Parpan began his career at the Sun in February 2006 as a news reporter. He then served as the Sun's sports editor, before moving back to the news side in his current role as associate editor.

Before coming to The Sun, Grant spent three years on the sports staff of The Signal, a daily newspaper in Santa Clarita, Calif. Mr. Parpan, who grew up in Ridge and moved to California in 2002, most recently served as sports editor for The Signal from August 2004 to January 2006. Last year he and his staff were honored with a National Newspaper Association award for best sports series. In April 2005, he was awarded the Associated Press News Executives Council award for sportswriting, as well as accolades from the California Newspaper Publishers Association.

In January 2006, Mr. Parpan and his wife, Melissa, decided to leave their home in Los Angeles to return to Long Island where they were both raised. They currently reside in Ridge, where Mr. Parpan, a 1997 graduate of Longwood High School, grew up.

Reporter Anna Gustafson joined The North Shore SunÕs staff as a reporter in May 2007 after relocating to Mount Sinai from Connecticut, where she was a reporter for The Hour, a daily newspaper in Norwalk.

Ms. Gustafson, 25, began her journalism career immediately upon graduating from Beloit College in 2004, where she majored in international relations, focusing on journalism and economics. She worked for her college newspaper and wrote for two newspapers while studying abroad in Morocco. Ms. Gustafson grew up outside Philadelphia.

Sports editor Joe Werkmeister is a 2006 graduate of St. Bonaventure University, where he was the sports editor, managing editor and ultimately editor-in-chief of the university's campus newspaper, The Bona Venture.

While at St. Bonaventure, Mr. Werkmeister earned a Jim Murray scholarship based on a national essay contest in honor of the late Los Angeles Times sportswriter, and earned honorable mention for the Jandoli Award for outstanding achievement in the print curriculum.

Earlier this year Mr. Werkmeister was awarded the top prize for sports feature writing by the New York Press Association for his 2006 profile of former Major League Baseball player and Shoreham-Wading River graduate Keith Osik.

With a full complement of local columnists and correspondents at the ready, The Sun's staff is committed to excellence. But the paper will not function at its best without involved readers. If you have a news tip, a story suggestion or a photograph, please contact us at (631) 744-0404, (Fax) 631-744-2640 or via email.

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